Robert J. Perelli, CJM ©
A Month of Sunday, Volume 2
Chapter XXVI
Isaiah 55:6-9
Seek the LORD while he may be found,
call him while he is near.
Let the scoundrel forsake his way,
and the wicked his thoughts;
let him turn to the LORD for mercy;
to our God, who is generous in forgiving.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways above your ways
and my thoughts above your thoughts.
Matthew 20:1-16a
Jesus told his disciples this parable:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner
who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard.
After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage,
he sent them into his vineyard.
Going out about nine o’clock,
the landowner saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard,
and I will give you what is just.’
So they went off.
And he went out again around noon,
and around three o’clock, and did likewise.
Going out about five o’clock,
the landowner found others standing around, and said to them,
‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’
They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’
He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’
When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman,
‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay,
beginning with the last and ending with the first.’
When those who had started about five o’clock came,
each received the usual daily wage.
So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more,
but each of them also got the usual wage.
And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying,
‘These last ones worked only one hour,
and you have made them equal to us,
who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’
He said to one of them in reply,
‘My friend, I am not cheating you.
Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?
Take what is yours and go.
What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?
Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?
Are you envious because I am generous?’
Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
If you are lucky enough to have practicing Jewish people as friends, you probably know that, according to Hebrew law, pictures of God are prohibited.
That’s why you never see a statue or painting or stain glass widow depicting God in a synagogue or temple or in the home of a Jewish person.
This tradition reflects their belief that God is so different than any creature that it would be theologically absurd to depict God in any way, shape or form. Plus, the second commandment declared:
…Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them….(Exodus 20:1-17)
And yet, God of the Israelites is a deeply personal God. So personal that, in the Hebrew scriptures, God is constantly talked about in anthropomorphic images. An anthropomorphism is an image in which a human characteristics are ascribed to God. And so we read that God walked in the garden of Eden yet we know God has no feet (Exodus 3:8) and that God “…saw that it was good…” (Exodus 1:3) but we know God has no eyes; or that God rested on the seventh day (Exodus 2:2) yet we know that God never sleeps only creatures sleep. Probably that most common anthropomorphism is the attribution of a gender to God in as much as, in a patriarchal society, God was almost always considered male. Again, we know that God has no gender and to believe that God is a man is heresy.
So, here’s my point: there are consequences to all this “anthropomorphizing,” all this personal talk of God as if God was a creature. And, the consequence is that we begin to think that God’s ways are human ways.
Nothing could be farther from the true.
The reading from the prophet Isaiah assigned to this the liturgy presents a profound truth that the Gospel will reaffirm: when it comes to forgiveness, God’s ways are not like our ways.
“As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are My ways above your ways
and My thoughts above your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)
Let me try to explain.
Toward the end of Cycle A of the church’s liturgical, all eyes turn to forgiveness.
The 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time teaches us that we must forgive each other seventy times seven times (which basically means always) and then tells us that God will forgive us even more than that. (Matthew 18:21-35).
The 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time, the readings we are considering in this reflection, teaches us that our God is as generous with forgiveness to us as the Estate Owner in the Gospel story is when he gives the worker who labored just one hour as much money as he gave the laborer who worked “…a full day in the scorching sun.”
The 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time teaches us that the most sinful - tax collectors and prostitutes - will enter heaven before many of us because they know they need forgiveness. (Matthew 21:28-32)
These three forgiveness stories are difficult for us because our sense of forgiveness is based on justice and, when we hear these Gospel stories about unbridled forgiveness, we are likely to cry out:
“It’s not fair!”
“They don’t deserve to be forgiven!”
“Is there no justice?”
We are more like the resentful first group of laborers hired early in the morning and worked a full day in the scorching sun, who, when they saw the last group of laborers hired late in the day and only worked an hour and got a full days wage, expected that they would get more.
But, here’s the nut, our ways are not God’s ways. Our sense of forgiveness is based on justice, but God’s sense of forgiveness is based on mercy!
Or, in the words of the Gospel:
I intend to give this man who was hired late in the day the same pay (read “forgiveness”) that I gave to you. I am free to do as I please with my money
(read “forgiveness”), am I not?
Like it or not, when it comes to forgiveness, our God is not stingy or critical or begrudging or judgmental or punitive or rash. Get it? Good.
How important is forgiveness to us?
Well, there’s one way to find out. I Goggled it and found that there are at least 149,439 books available on the subject of forgiveness.
It seems to me that we might like to think and write and read about forgiveness more than we like to share it.
When it comes to forgiveness, our ways are not God’s ways. But then, there is always the exception.
As hard as it is to find a human story that will help us understand the mystery of God’s mercy and the depth of God’s forgiveness, I think I may have one that, despite its human limitations, can help us solve the mystery and plumb the depths of God’s generosity.
In an October 2, 2006 attack at West Nickel Mines Amish School in Pennsylvania, a 32 year old gunman named Charles Carl Robert IV killed five little girls, seriously wounded five others and then took his own life.
Hell on earth.
CNN reported that the grandfather of one of the murdered little girls said this of the killer: “We must not think evil of this man.” And, Jack Meyer, a member of the Amish community to which the children belonged, explained: “I don’t think there’s anyone here that want to do anything but forgive and not only reach out to those who have suffered a loss in that way but to reach out to the family of the man who committed these acts.”
The National Post, a Canadian newspaper, reported that the Amish community set up a charitable fund for the widow and children of the man who murdered five of their daughter and wounded five more.
How often have you seen this kind of forgiveness?
Sometimes our ways are God’s ways. But not often enough.
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